Kevin Love's Double-Double Streak and the 15 Most Impressive NBA Records (2024)

Kevin Love is only in his third NBA season, but he has already made history. His streak of games with a double-double extended to 51, tying the all-time record set by Moses Malone, though his was across two seasons. This streak puts him in rarefied air with some of the other greats who have played the game.

Many of the greatest records set in NBA history are ones where you look at it and just cannot figure out how a player or team was able to pull it off, as they seem unbreakable nowadays. Even those that are not unbreakable are still crazy to think about.

Here are the 15 most impressive records in NBA history.

Elmore Smith is known for two things. First, he was the center the Lakers traded to acquire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Second, during his time with the Lakers, he set the NBA record for most blocks in a game.

On October 28, 1973, Smith had 17 blocks against the Portland Trail Blazers. By comparison, getting five in a game is pretty impressive. Smith manged 4.9 pergame that year. Only four players have managed 14 in a game, and you have to wonder how he got that many; did the Blazers just keep trying to go inside in hopes Smith would get tired?

This record is actually under some fire, since right now Anthony Morrow would have the best career percentage were he to retire today. If we just use those that are retired, the honor goes to Steve Kerr.

The Suns' former general manager was a key role player for Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. During the famed 1995-96 season, he shot .515 from behind the arc. In fact, he had four seasons where he made over half his shots, and retired with a percentage of .454.

This is the first of many records on this list to be held by none other than Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain.

There's only 48 minutes in a game, and LeBron's 40-minute a game average in his career so far has been considered to be almost overworking him. That number has nothing on Wilt, who averaged 45.8 minutes per game in his career. Yes, for every game, he took off about two minutes, and his low numbers came with the Lakers, when they tried to keep him under that 45-minute mark.

This record could change hands if Shaq ends his career on a sour note, since right now he's neck-and-neck with Artis Gilmore for the title. Both players, however, easily have everyone else beat.

In his career, Shaquille O'Neal has a career field goal percentage of .5823. In fact, so far this season he has made abouttwo-thirds of his shots, and his efficiency seems to be getting even better with age. That could be attributed to fewer touches, but it's still very impressive.

This slideshow is on the most impressive records, which means 99 times out of 100 the record is going to be great; it's common sense.

Once in a while though, someone puts up a number so futile that it's impressive in its own right. That person is Ben Wallace, whose career free-throw percentage of .415 is incredibly bad. By comparison, Shaquille O'Neal, the man known for poor free-throw shooting, has a career mark of .527.

Heck, Wallace has been known to air-ball free throws. It's baffling how he can't shoot them, and the fact that he doesn't have this problem anywhere else makes this record ironically impressive.

The steal is one of those moves in basketball that is great to watch, yet it's not one you see too often. Usually, a great performance is notching around 200 in a season.

This makes John Stockton's mark that much moreimpressive. The career assists leader has 3,265 steals in his career. Michael Jordan is second with only 2,514, and Jason Kidd could be the third to hit that 2,500 mark. Basketball players throughout the league hadto make sure they didn't throw the ball anywhere near Stockton.

Since we already looked at the worst free-throw shooter, let's look at the best ones. We know of the best career shooters, such as Larry Bird and Mark Price, but the season record is actually much more impressive.

Just a couple years ago, Jose Calderon became automatic from the free-throw line. During the 2008-09 season, Calderon missed only three shots and finished the year with a .9805 free-throw percentage. It's strange to think that a guy who's fouled is virtually guaranteed to make free throws, but that's what happened that year.

The Boston Celtics in the 1960s were beyond dominant; it was pretty much impossible to beat them come playoff time. Bill Russell's championship count is evidence of that.

In 13 career seasons, Russell has the most rings of all time with 11. Sam Jones is second with 10, and Robert Horry leads all non-Celtics with seven. This is likely an unbreakable record, and it's very impressive that Russell was able to lead a team to this many titles.

When Michael Jordan made his return to the NBA and you took a look at the 1995-96 Bulls roster, you knew they were going to be great. There was even the possibility of them breaking the wins record.

Needless to say, they did, going 72-10 while looking like one of the greatest teams ever. The Bulls' domination of the league seemed so effortless, thatany loss was met with surprise no matter how good the other team was.

You can probably guess without looking that this record is held by Wilt Chamberlain (or Bill Russell; but these players have a near-monopoly on the top-rebounds list), but nonetheless the sheer number of rebounds he had in a game is just beyond reason.

In a game against the Boston Celtics on November 24, 1960, Wilt got 55 rebounds. Yes, 55, a number which is more than many teams get in a game these days. Either no one else on the team bothered to get any or Wilt is just that dominant.

Presuming that Kevin Love scores one of these in tonight's game against Indiana, he will establish the double-double record that has been in place since the merger.

While there's the possibility that others such as Wilt or Bill Russell hold the all-time record, it does not discount what Kevin Love has been able to do, since this is in a different era. Putting up numbers with the kind of consistency he has is not something you see these days, as it is so easy to have an off-game.

Assists are a relatively unheralded skill, and not one you hear much about unless that ball is going to a great scorer (Stockton to Malone) or unless the guy is notching a slew of triple-doubles (Jason Kidd).

Neither, however, hold this record. That honor belongs to Scott Skiles. In a December 30, 1990 matchup against the Denver Nuggets, Skiles notched 30 assists. By comparison, you usually see 20 or so assists by a team in a game these days. That's impressive not only for the ball control, but because all these assists had to turn into baskets.

This is one of those records we all know, one that is a testament to not only dominance, but longevity as well.

The record is held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has 38,387 points in his career. Only one other player, Karl Malone, has reached the 35,000 mark, and the only player who has a realistic shot at hitting that right now is Kobe Bryant. It's just such an impressive number of points and shows how great he was.

We all know about Cal Ripken's Iron Man streak in baseball, one which may never be broken. What's not as well known is the same streak for the NBA, which may even be more impressive since it's normal for players to take a day off once in a while.

This record is held by A.C. Green, who played 1,192 straight games before his retirement. That's over 13 seasons of playing basketball without taking a game off, and that's something I can't see anyone doing, or even wanting to do, again.

What else you were expecting? Anyone who scores 100 in a game is going to have the most impressive record as long as scoring is what matters to fans.